Category Archives: Social Media

What the News Will Say About Me Based On My Twitter

If there is any lesson to be taken on the state of the media after recent events, it’s that they could use a hand. So, just in case something happens to me tragically, like my childhood love of 20/20 instilled in me, or I write a particularly angry email to my improv team (that’s like a sorority, right?), here is what you’ll see on Today for at least five segments of the morning show and two pages of TMZ.

I would also like to request that Ann Curry, Diane Sawyer, or Meredith Viera do the inevitable interview of my family and friends. Maybe Brian Williams. Definitely Colbert.

Harsh Critic of the Government


Heavy into Television


Anti-Women


Mournful of a Simpler America


You’re welcome, Liberal Media.

The Power of Twitter

Do you remember that time Bruce Jenner’s ex-wife tweeted my post about him?

This is so much better.

For the record, I always think Ms. Spencer looks lovely and would wear pretty much everything I’ve seen her wear.

Top 5 Facebook Behaviors for Which I Will Click Unsubscribe

5. Bitching About the Timeline Switch

You know what you should really be bitching about? Not having access to clean water, medicine, or an education. Oh wait. You live in the first world and do, in fact, have those things. Quit complaining and use your voice to do some good in the world.

4. Using Pinterest to Plan Your Wedding…and You’re Not Even Engaged

Seriously, ladies. It’s just sad. Not cry for you sad, but wince at you sad.

3. Passive Aggressive Whining or Boyfriend/Best Friend Bashing

Yes, making this example orientation specific serves the stereotype of the whiny straight girl or drama queen gay, but guess the hard truth is, friends? I’ve never seen a straight guy or gay girl write a status like this:

 

 

If you have something to say, say it. To your therapist. To your private journal. To their face. In a phone call. In a heartfelt you really hurt my feelings and here’s why email. Not on Facebook, for the world at large to see. It’s sort of a Peter and the Wolf thing: the more times you wax poetic about something that doesn’t matter, the less likely I am to recognize you have something important to say.

If this particular form of social media has done nothing else, it has extended the span of high school he said/she saids well past graduation.

2. Politics, Politics, Politics

This goes for members of both parties and their outliers. Unless you have a good bipartisan punchline or news source to share – without commentary – I don’t want to deal with it. Similar to how you’re not supposed to have conversations about money or religion in polite company, politics should be set aside. Which is not to say that Facebook is polite company, because it clearly is not.

1. Excessive Updates of Your Future Family

Do you remember plastering on a fake smile when Creepy Uncle whipped out a slide show of the family Grand Canyon trip? Well slide shows were a bit beyond my years, actually, but you get the point. No one not on your trip – and often those who were on it – cares to experience your experience in images.

This goes double for your developing child including – but not limited to – actual sonograms, weekly documentation of your growing stomach in profile, and how doting your parenting partner is. (Obnoxious social media behaviors do not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.)

If people – namely, your immediate families – want to see pictures of your trip into parentdom, they’ll ask. You can set up a Flickr account, they can print a poster of a fuzzy black-and-white Junior You and paint a pink or blue bow on it for all I care. As long as it doesn’t pop up on me without warning. Seriously – if I see on vag shot a la Knocked Up or high school health class, I’m off of Facebook forever.

Lest you think me heartless, I do want to extend compliments to my lovely friend, Victoria, who has yet to be removed from my feed even though she’s currently baking a bun in the oven. If you’re going to announce what sex your baby is on Facebook (at least to people not important enough for a personal delivery, like I was, NBD) this is a good way to do it:

What kicks someone off your News Feed?

 

Do I Have to Like Pinterest?

Last year I attempted to make my WordPress blog into something a little bit more professional than, say, my Tumblr blog or general personality.  (I have since realized that I don’t particularly care about having a traditional “professional” demeanor and prefer to dream about making a living doing things I like and being a genuine self as opposed to a corporate Stepford Wife. I digress.)

Anyway, when I first wrote about Pinterest I can’t say that I was in love. I was trying to figure out how to use it before it became the Next Big Thing.  I wanted it to be at least partially professional and connected to my cleaner persona but didn’t really connect with the internet collage of it all.  (Considering my tweenage bedroom was covered in clippings from magazines, I’m actually surprised.) After I clicked publish on my post, I basically forgot about the damn thing.

Until it popped up on my Facebook news feed. And news articles. And annoying girls I went to high school with who now consider themselves great cooks and organizers. (Nothing against great cooks or organizers, I’m just so not there yet.)

Recently I’ve been trying to get into it, maybe see if I was missing something the first time around. I’ve been pinning images from DIY blogs (projects I’ll never end up making), design blogs (furniture I’ll never end up buying), and fashion blogs (clothes I’ll never end up fitting in).  I like and repin but it hasn’t become second nature quite yet.  If I don’t embrace Pinterest for what it is – a kitchen cork board for the Digital Age – do I lose my street cred?

Are you into Pinterest?

Technobsessed: Cinemagram

Well, now that Instagram is available for your friends with Android phones, it’s probably time for me to tell you about my favorite new iPhone app of the moment, Cinemagram.

For readers of A Little Bit Ginger on Tumblr, you may have noticed that I tend to entertain myself by taking pictures of random things I see like bad fashion choices (leggings are not pants!), delicious food, or delicious booze. Sometimes, with the help of Instagram’s filters, they might even look kind of artful.

But thanks to Cinemagram, I can capture the joys of drinking with movement, like Len and Emily taking shots before hitting up class.  (Don’t worry, we’re just studying improv, not learning how to be surgeons or anything.)

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